German brand's overlooked city car had some promise but didn't last long on the market.

2012-2014 Volkswagen Up used car review

The Volkswagen Up! (yes, it officially included an exclamation mark in its name) that we first saw in 2012 definitely falls into the latter category. Not that it was a bad car; it just didn't seem to be what Aussie car buyers were after.

Unlike Europe (the market for which the Up! was originally conceived) the local scene tends to lump all small cars together, instead of differentiating between the small and the very small. Which meant that anybody here looking for a small VW tended to make the Polo its first port of call, ignoring the Up (we're going to drop the ! from here on it, as I reckon you get it by now).

Of course, that could be seen as confusing 'quirky' with 'irrelevant' but that's what happened. Nor would it be the first time it's happened in this market.

In reality, the Up was a good chunk smaller than the Polo and was conceived mainly for running around European cities that are both crowded and made up of narrow streets and alleys.

In fact, park the Up next to a Polo and the size difference becomes obvious: The Up is 534mm shorter, 41mm narrower and 24mm lower than the already diminutive Polo.

Outright performance was never really a consideration, but fuel economy in a region where petrol can easily cost $3 a litre was. So the Up got a tiny, one-litre three-cylinder engine which made 55kW of power.

That doesn't sound much – and it isn't in the bigger scheme of things – but it was enough to give the car good urban performance and just enough oomph to cut it on a country road (if not an autobahn).

The biggest problem for Australian buyers was that the Up did not come with an automatic transmission option. The five-speed manual did, however, make the most of all the little Up had so, in this case, the engineers had a victory over the marketing department.

That didn't matter so much in Europe where manual gearboxes still rule, but it made things hard for VW dealers here.

The Up was available with an option called Maps and More which consisted of a tablet-style screen that interfaced with the driver's mobile phone and acted as both a Bluetooth unit and a navigation-trip computer device. The catch was that the screen was removable, so make sure it comes with the car if it was ordered with this option.

The other neat piece of equipment (and this one was standard) on the Up was autonomous city braking which would automatically apply the brakes and stop the car if it detected an obstacle. The system worked at speeds up to 30km/h, so it's a great addition for a car that will naturally appeal to younger drivers.

And thanks to the fact that the Up is quite a modern design, it managed to score five stars for safety in both three and five-door formats. Again, this is serious peace of mind in such a compact package.

So far, the Up seems to be pretty reliable, but the one thing that has made some owners ask questions is the noise from the transmission at idle with the gearbox in neutral and the clutch released. Plenty of Up owners have noted a rattling noise from under the car in these conditions and, from what we can gather, it's a case of a few elements combining to make the noise.

For a start, some gearboxes seem to have what's called neutral rollover noise, or chatter, caused by the meshing of the gears at idle, and the Up's five-speed seems to be one of them.

Secondly, the firing order and impulses of the three-cylinder engine tend to exacerbate this condition.

Thirdly, some manufacturers get around this by fitting what's called a dual-mass flywheel which damps out some of these vibrations and their attendant noises. The Up does not have such a flywheel.

So there can be some clanking, rattling noises but nobody seems to have driven an Up far enough to find out whether the gearbox is likely to fail prematurely. But if a car does exhibit these noises, we'd still want to check the condition of the gearbox oil because the Up's tiny transmission didn't hold a whole lot of oil in the first place. Obviously, any metal particles suspended in the oil would make us look elsewhere. In a hurry.

Other owners have also reported whining noises from the Up's transmission at speed on a steady throttle, so we'd definitely consider an independent inspection before any purchase if this is the case.

The VW Up remains a popular vehicle in Europe where roads are constantly congested and parking is at a premium (not to mention that fuel costs a lot more than it does here) but for Australia, the writing was on the wall pretty early and the model was dropped in 2014, just a little over two years after its launch.

One recall affects the Up and it was for a batch of cars where the airbags were not correctly programmed. According to VW, the airbags would still work, but the diagnostics for the side airbags was not correctly programmed. In that case, the airbag warning light would not activate if there was a problem, but the recall affected only 12 cars.

Mitsubishi Mirage – Another three-cylinder car, this time with 1.2 litres but very similar output to the Up. Interior pretty plasticky and standard equipment lists short, but the Mirage was good fun to drive. 2.5/5

Fiat 500 – Undeniably cute and dripping with retro chic. Good to drive, too, although a lot more money than the Up. Great in the city thanks to tiny footprint and plenty of options and choices. 3.5/5

Toyota Yaris – The sensible choice thanks to Toyota's reliability record. Four-cylinder engine was 1.5 litres so performance was adequate. And you could have it with an automatic gearbox, though only a four-speed unit. 3.5/5